Category Archives: General

Radio New Zealand – Professor Stephen Zunes about Western Sahara

RNZ, Broadcast, 3 April 2016

A few weeks back UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon described the Western Sahara as an occupied land that had been forgotten. Morocco promptly expelled UN staff from the region in protest. Stephen Zunes is the co-author of Western Sahara War, Nationalism, and Conflict Irresolution – one of the only books on the struggle by the indigenous Sahrawi people for independance.

Listen to Prof Stephen Zunes broadcast >>

Decades-old dispute separates Western Sahara families

Daily Mail Australia, 3 April 2016

Ergueibi Abdelahi was just nine months old when his aunt scooped him up and fled fighting in Western Sahara after Morocco sent troops into the former Spanish colony, leaving his parents and brother behind. Until he was 10, he thought his aunt was his mother.
“She (my mother) was at the market on the day we ran,” Abdelahi says of their escape in 1978 across the border into Algeria.

Daily Mail Australia report >>

UN calls bodies to boycott Crans Montana Forum in occupied Dakhla

Algeria Press Service, 14 February 2016

NEW YORK-The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Saturday called on all officials and UN bodies not to participate in the Crans Montana Forum, scheduled for March in the occupied city of Dakhla, Western Sahara.
The Saharawi President and Secretary General of the Polisario Front, Mohamed Abdelaziz, recently sent a letter to Ban Ki-moon, deplored the decision of the board of the Crans Montana Forum to hold its next edition in the occupied city of Dakhla. (cont.)

Ban Ki-moon rejects Morocco criticism after Sahrawi refugees visit

AfricaNews. 10/03 – 08:16

The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday rejected Morocco’s criticism after his visit to the region to restart talks between Rabat and the Polisario Front over Western Sahara, claiming that his goal remained a priority. Mr. Ban visited Mauritania and a Sahrawi refugees camp in Algeria last week in the hope of shifting positions on the conflict that has lasted four decades.

Article in AfricaNews. >>

UN Chief Arrives in Western Sahara as Talks in Crisis

Photo: Ariel Armeno

March 4, 2016 · posted by Independent Diplomat in Blog

“UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is set to arrive in Western Sahara tomorrow (Saturday 5 March) for the first visit of his tenure. The trip comes at a crisis point for UN talks on Western Sahara following Morocco’s refusal over the last three years to participate in any direct negotiations, its refusal to receive the UN Secretary-General during his current visit to the region, and its killing this week of a Saharawi civilian in the demilitarized buffer zone….(cont.)”

Independent Diplomat post >>

UN Secretary-General’s remarks to press following meeting with Secretary-General of the Polisario Front

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
Off-the-Cuff, Rabouni, 5 March 2016

“I am honored to be able to visit here today. I had a very good meeting with Secretary-General [Mohamed] Abdelaziz and I would like to take this opportunity to express my most sincere thanks for their very kind welcome…..(cont.)”

16th Sahara Marathon coincides for 40th anniversary of SADR declaration

Middle East Eye, In Pictures, Tuesday 23 February 2016

Some 500 runners from North Africa, Europe and North America competed in the 16th Sahara Marathon on Tuesday, organisers said.
The event – which sets off from the Tindouf refugee camp in Algeria – was timed to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the declaration of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) on 27 February 1976, Saharawi Minister of Youth and Sports Ahmed Lahbib Abdi, told reporters….(cont.)

Middle East Eye article >>

Australia’s Incitec Pivot has received its first shipment of unethical phosphates of 2016

Western Sahara Resource Watch, 12 January 2016

A New Year’s gift of an estimated US $3.7 million. That’s what Australia’s Incitec Pivot paid the Moroccan government for its first 2016 shipment of phosphate rock sourced in occupied Western Sahara.
On 5 and 7 January, the bulk carrier Maratha Prudence discharged 8,000 tonnes in Portland and another 22,000 tonnes in Geelong – the two ports were Ozzie fertilizer producer Incitec Pivot Limited (IPL) takes in its cargoes of raw material.

WSRW article >>

1976 – 2016 : 40 Years of Exile. Swiss Support Committees for the Saharawi petition is launched

January 2016
The Swiss Support Committees for the Saharawi have launched a Petition to the UN Security Council to require the immediate organisation of a referendum on self-determination in Western Sahara and they call for worldwide support for this petition. It’s time to find a solution to the conflict in Western Sahara.

Please sign – and spread the information around the world!
We need thousands and thousands of signatures…
Campaign for signing the petition: 1 January 2016 – 15 August 2016

Sign the petition >>

Colin Murphy reports on the forgotten conflict of Western Sahara

The Sunday Business Post, 15 November 2015
Colin Murphy reports on his visits to the Polisario-run camps, in Algeria, some years ago and more recently where roughly 100,000 people live a barren existence, without a functioning economy or proper services.
He writes, “On a separate trip to Western Sahara, I met dozens of Sahrawi activists who said they had been arrested, beaten, imprisoned and tortured for activities ranging from graffiti to human rights work to political protest. Among these was Brahim Sabbar, whom I met in Dublin again recently, as he attended an event run by the Irish human rights organisation, Front Line Defenders. (…cont.)

Colin Murphy’s article >>

Australia Western Sahara Association

Working for justice for the Saharawi people